For as big of a deal as the MPAA made about shutting down Megaupload, the trade association is certainly interested in maintaining users' data for some reason. Oh, it's so the MPAA can sue some more people? Right, of course.

Not everybody outside the MPAA is super-stoked about Megaupload shutting down and no one less than Carpathia, MU's server hosts. The Virginia-based firm is currently holding on to 25PB of evidence user data—at a cost of about $9,000 a day. The company wants to dump the data and recover its sequestered server space, but now the MPAA is requesting it keep on holding millions of users' account information. The MPAA wants the data so that it can sue Megaupload and "various intermediaries" for contributing to copyright infringement after the Feds get their fill.

Don't panic, the MPAA promises that they won't sue end users—though that has never stopped them before. "The reason we did that filing [was] that there is a possibility that litigation might be pursued against Megaupload or various intermediaries involved in Megaupload's operation. We're not talking about individual users," Howard Gantman, a MPAA vice president, told Wired. The court has set a hearing for next month to discuss the matter.

The MPAA's request appears to do nothing but screw the user, unfortunately. Either the data will be erased without the opportunity for them to recover it or it will be saved but likely inaccessible due to the ongoing lawsuits. What I can't understand is why the court wouldn't simply authorize the host to grant users read-only rights—allowing them to download files but not otherwise modify the account—while we're waiting for next month's hearing? [Court files, Wired via Electronista]